Learning by doing

For the past 24 hours I've been playing around with Google Sites for a project which ... I can't talk about yet. After the initial shiny wore off, it quickly became a frustrating experience. I suppose if I was not familiar with HTML my reaction may have been different, but as it is, with the progress Blogger has made over the last year, it's now a much better prospect as a content management system than Sites. Apart from side-stepping the idiosyncrasies and annoyances of Sites, Blogger gives you content scheduling, tagging, RSS everywhere, multiple sharing options, custom permalinks - it's a no-brainer.

One remaining issue - what's the best way to implement MCQs/SAQs on Blogger - via links to Google forms?

Which has two consequences. On the plus side, I now have a platform for my forthcoming (secret) project (sorry). On the other hand, I was planning on inflicting Google Sites on our first year students in the coming year. I can't do that in good conscience now, so I need an alternative (to replace the Google Docs group writing exercise which has just become too troublesome to administer). Any suggestions of what to do with 300 first year biology students?

A.J. Cann